Israel attacks launch site in Lebanon after rockets ‘fired’

Israeli forces have struck an area of Lebanon from which a cross-border rocket launch was carried, its military said.

The statement said a rocket fired earlier on Thursday from within Lebanon had exploded within Israeli territory.“In response, the IDF (Israeli military) is currently striking the area from which the launch was carried out in Lebanese territory,” the military statement said.

A previous statement by the military had said there were no preliminary findings of any unusual events on Israel’s side of the border.

Lebanon’s state news agency ANI said Israel had fired “more than 15 artillery shells” which hit around the communities of Kfar Chouba and Halta.

There was no claim of responsibility for the reported rocket fire and no immediate comment from the Lebanese army.

Sources in Lebanon said one rocket landed near the Lebanese border village of Wazzani and a second near the disputed village of Ghajar, which straddles the Israel-Lebanon border but whose residents profess allegiance to Syria.

In a separate incident hours later, a shooting was reported near an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said. Emergency services said that one person was seriously wounded.

‘Cautious calm’
The United Nations’ peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon urged all sides to show restraint and avoid an escalation after the reported exchange of fire on Thursday given the area had “already experienced tensions earlier this week.”

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reporting from the Lebanese capital, Lebanon said a “cautious calm” was holding at the moment.